Why did you decide to be a freelancer? And what would you tell someone who wanted to do the same?

These are two of nine interesting questions that the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) wants people to engage with as part of an upcoming Twitter chat.

Self employed people have been asked if they would answer one or two of these on Twitter with hashtag #FreelancerLife, as part of a special session between 12pm and 1pm tomorrow (February 25th).

Other questions involved in the activity include &#39;What are you top three freelance challenges?&#39;, &#39;Has going freelance changed your attitude?&#39; and &#39;What impact does working freelance have on your personal life?&#39;, among others.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) numbers covering the end of last year suggest there were 4.50 million self employed people in the UK, a year-on-year rise of 88,000. Most self employed were working full-time and 1,304,000 were working part-time, the stats, covering October to December, suggest.

With the General Election approaching, political parties need to improve the commitments they&#39;re making to support for independent professionals, according to the chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE).

&quot;We welcome Conservative efforts towards ending late payment of small suppliers and providing free wifi on trains, while Labour&rsquo;s plans are positive but could go much further to ensure they support this vital section of the UK&rsquo;s economy,&quot; the IPSE&#39;s Chris Bryce said.

Speaking after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) brought out new employment data, he also said that &quot;the steady march of the self employed&quot; is continuing.

He said that it is especially good that there&#39;s a continuing trend for women to opt for self employment, as seen in the stats.

The ONS data, which was about the October to December 2014 period, showed 88,000 more self employed people year on year.

The numbers suggest there are 3,197,000 people self employed full-time in the UK, 0.5 per cent up on a year ago and 1.6 per cent down on the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, it seems 1,304,000 are self employed part time, six per cent up year-on-year and 2.6 per cent up on the previous quarter.

New Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows 30.9 million people in the UK were classed as being in work for October to December last year - a record level.

The unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent, down year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, and lower than it has ever been this side of 2008.

The employment rate was 73.2 per cent.&nbsp;It&#39;s never actually surpassed this level since 1971, the beginning of comparable records.

In the wake of the ONS&#39; new Labour Market Statistics, Iain Duncan Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions, has claimed that decreasing unemployment, rising wages and employment at a record level shows progress for the government&#39;s plan for the economy.

&quot;Following yesterday&rsquo;s [February 17th] inflation figures, wages have risen at a faster rate than prices once again, meaning more money in people&rsquo;s pockets &ndash; with pay including bonuses up 2.1% on the year and private sector pay up 2.5%,&quot; he also said, citing ONS figures.

HMRC has reminded small employers who have under 50 people working for them as employees that penalties for being late with Pay As You Earn (PAYE) filing are set to apply to them beginning in early March.

More generally, it has also given word that no employer will be fined for a PAYE filing delay of three days or less, in a new move also beginning next month. Filing deadlines themselves have not been altered.

Meanwhile, the tax authority continues to ask for views about how the penalties system around late filing, registration and payment could be improved.

When its consultation, which closes May 11th, ends, it has promised to review how PAYE penalty changes are working by early April next year.

Self employed people will likely associate HMRC with the self assessment tax process. The Office for National Statistics&#39; most recent UK numbers showed 3.22 million people self employed on a full-time basic and 1.30 million part-time self employed workers.

Having called for such a move in a recent manifesto, the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self Employed reacted positively to the news.

Its director of policy and external affairs, Simon McVicker, claims that the current situation with Wi-Fi on trains leads to &quot;a huge loss in productivity&quot; for independent professionals.

&quot;This proposal was outlined in IPSE&rsquo;s recent manifesto to help the self-employed reach their full potential and we are delighted the Prime Minister has acted to bring Britain up to speed,&quot; he said.

Mr McVicker also said IPSE hopes all political parties will make a commitment to boosting the digital infrastructure in Britain in the run up to the General Election.

Mr Cameron&#39;s announcement came after a question in Parliament. The PM said he was &quot;pleased to announce&quot; &nbsp;roll-out plans for free train Wi-Fi in the UK beginning 2017, as part of a government investment, and noted four specific rail operators affected by the move.

Wi-Fi is already available on some trains - in some cases it is already free at the point of use.

Experts have been chewing over the General Election, as part of a special panel event from The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE).

Self employed people will be just one of the groups hitting the polling stations on May 7th to usher in the UK&#39;s next government.

The recent panel discussion on February 12th saw the public given a chance to send in questions ahead of a live stream - and interested parties can still watch a recording of the event online.

Part of the IPSE Live series, the event was hosted by director of policy and external affairs for IPSE, Simon McVicker, with Progress director Richard Angell; Queen Mary University of London politics professor Tim Bale; parliamentary researcher Laura Round and the associate director of Whitehouse Consultancy, Alex Singleton, making up the panel itself.

Prior to the event, it was promised that it would include discussion of political parties&#39; positive action for people who are self employed, and where these parties could improve things in this area.

A decent internet connection can be anything from a nice bonus to an essential if you&#39;re self employed.

The government is currently working to get superfast broadband into places commercial networks aren&#39;t covering. It wants to give 95 per cent of the United Kingdom access to superfast by the year 2017, and progress suggests this goal will be reached.

It recently announced that the project has helped over two million businesses and homes. Four fifths of properties are able to get the superfast speeds, overall.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, the project is predicted to create some 56,000 additional UK jobs this side of 2024.

Effort is also being undertaken on the five per cent of properties that current roll out work doesn&#39;t account for. A selection of pilot schemes were recently confirmed for further development, for this purpose.

Freelancing has topped a chart of the things Brits most commonly do as a second job.

thinkmoney.co.uk survey research discovered that 17 per cent of people in the UK have an additional job. Among this proportion, 16.8 per cent said this extra work takes the form of freelancing.

That rose to 19 per cent among men, according to the survey, which was carried out by OnePoll. For women, the figure was 15 per cent.

Only 11 per cent of second job holders aged 25 to 34 said they freelance for a second job, against 33 per cent for the 45 to 54 year old age group and 23 per cent for over 55s.

Overall, 34 per cent of people who work in a second job say they need this additional work to cope financially. And 51 per cent want extra spends.

Bar work and &#39;other&#39; types of work were the second and third most popular types of second job cited in the research.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801773565Wed, 04 Feb 2015 12:11:39 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801773565HMRC: Some 4.3 million saved their tax return until January

In the wake of the tax return deadline over the weekend (January 31st), HMRC says that some 4.3 million people waited until January to send their form in.

Overall, the tax authority was sent 10.24 million returns by the deadline, close to nine in ten of which were provided over the internet.

Those that miss the deadline are automatically fined &pound;100, and it can cost more if they don&#39;t send in what they need to for longer.

When it came to people filing, HMRC&#39;s busiest days during the tax return cycle were January 30th and 31st, right at the edge of the submission period. Some 980,000 returns came in on these two days alone.

&quot;This is another record-breaking year for Self Assessment, with 210,000 more people filing their returns on time than last year,&quot; commented Ruth Owen, director general of personal tax at HMRC.

&quot;We&rsquo;re grateful to the overwhelming majority of people who sent their returns on time.&quot; She urged people who have missed the January deadline to provide their return as quickly as possible.

The self employed are one of the main groups who use tax returns. Office for National Statistics data for September to November 2014 suggests that 3.22 million people work this way full-time in the UK, and 1.3 million do so part-time.

Construction workers have been making and converting homes, which in turn have earned councils extra cash, thanks to the New Homes Bonus scheme.

Brandon Lewis, housing minister, has just released the final allocations for these payments, which go to councils in England, showing they add up to &pound;1.2 billion for the current year.

The scheme is designed to give councils extra incentive for local development. Extra council tax brought in through the creation of new housing is matched by the scheme, giving councils more cash.

Introduced in 2011, it&#39;s awarded councils some &pound;3.4 billion thus far, after they delivered over 700,000 conversion and brand new homes and made more than 100,000 empty properties usable as homes again.

&quot;In the past councils were penalised for supporting new housebuilding &ndash; now, thanks to the New Homes Bonus, those that build are rewarded for it,&quot; claimed Mr Lewis.

The scheme, he said, provides residents with an incentive to OK fresh development.

There&#39;s been annual growth in self employment, according to new Labour Market figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In September to November last year there were 3,220,000 full-time self employed people, which is up 1.7 per cent year-on-year (down 1.1 per cent on the previous quarter).

The same set of figures shows 1,300,000 people self employed on a part time basis, up 5.5 per cent on September to November 2013 and a 2.5 per cent rise on the quarter.

&quot;The number of people choosing to become their own boss continues to rise at an incredible rate and proves this way of working is here to stay,&quot; according to Chris Bryce, the chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE).

Reacting to the ONS stats, he continued: &quot;Self-employment is no longer just for the few, it&rsquo;s for the many and it&rsquo;s particularly welcoming that the number of women choosing to go solo continues to increase and has reached a whopping 1,450,000.&quot;

He said that, with a general election approaching, the smallest businesses in the UK ought to be prioritised on the political agenda.

The IPSE hopes every major political party will make a commitment to providing appropriate support for such workers, he added.

New Office for National Statistics UK Labour Market data shows 30.8 million in employment - a record level. The figure includes self employed people.

Covering September to November, the numbers show an employment rate of 73 per cent, which matches the pre-recession peak towards the beginning of 2008.

The unemployment rate is smaller than it has been since the middle of 2008, and stands at 5.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, 700,000 job vacancies were recorded in the UK, which is again a record peak. The stats also suggest that rising pay is outpacing inflation.

&quot;We have reached an important milestone in this country&rsquo;s jobs-led recovery &ndash; with unemployment falling below six per cent for the first time in 6 years. Welfare reform has played an instrumental part in this,&quot; claimed Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary.

He also said that, due to the government&#39;s economic plan, businesses have confidence when it comes to the future, there&#39;s job creation and rising pay.

Vince Cable has just given word of funding for a government and automotive industry scheme focussed on jobs in the sector.

Automotive businesses are teaming up to make sure UK vehicle makers and companies in the supply chain have the skills they require going forward.

Mr Cable, the business secretary, has unveiled &pound;11.3 million in funding from the government, &pound;16.4 million of industry in-kind contributions and &pound;2.8 million of cash investment for the Automotive Council scheme.

&quot;This investment puts our automotive sector in the driving seat to design the skills our manufacturing companies need. There is a risk that without adequate investment in skills, the industry will run into serious skills bottlenecks,&quot; explained the MP.

He said that the government is working alongside the continually-improving automotive industry, creating business confidence to make investments and bring about highly skilled jobs.

Aston Martin, BMW and Ford are among the employers involved in the new initiative.

It&#39;s predicted that automotive sector employment will go up in the future.

Following a review in 2014, new headteacher professional standards have been announced for England by Nicky Morgan, the education secretary.

The last set of similar standards came out in 2004, and were reviewed in 2014 by Dame Dana Ross-Wawrzynski and fellow experts with experience in head teaching jobs.

The fresh standards outline things it&#39;s felt headteachers ought to aspire to, such as setting the bar higher for every pupil, improving the quality of teachers via professional development and training, and other things.

Ms Morgan said there are already a large number of talented heads pushing the government&#39;s improvement programme and making sure pupils get preparation for modern British life.

&quot;That is why we want to champion these dedicated professionals who regularly go the extra mile for our children by providing them with aspirational standards of excellence that will support them to get the best of their staff and pupils,&quot; she added.

Many self employed people will have noticed the current ads from HMRC which are designed to get people to sort out their tax returns in time.

The tax authority is also&nbsp;sending out some 650,000 reminder emails, aimed at people who do their return over the internet and haven&#39;t finished their Self Assessment or paid up yet.

The tax return deadline is January 31st - which applies only to online returns (the paper deadline came and went in October).

These emails are being targeted at people who haven&#39;t got a tax agent to sort out their returns for them.&nbsp;The tax authority has stressed that the communications will not feature confidential details.

It has a Three-Point Protocol so that people are more likely to know if it&#39;s a scammer emailing them, and not HMRC.

Among other things, this includes the fact that genuine emails from the tax authority feature the recipient&#39;s full name, as per its records;&nbsp;don&#39;t ever feature financial details like information on tax refunds or payments that need to be made, and don&#39;t ever come with an attachment.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801770736Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:51:28 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801770736Who's more often late with tax returns: women or men?

We all know not to get our tax returns to HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) late, but it seems that women follow this advice rather more than men do.

New analysis from the tax authority shows that 394 tax returns for each 10,000 sent in by men last year got to HMRC post-deadline.

The figure when it came to women was 358 returns late in each 10,000 sent in. The figures cover both paper and online tax returns, which have separate deadline dates.

The data also shows that 1,085 returns for each 10,000 filed by people between the ages of 18 and 20 were late - more than for any other age group. Just 155 returns in each 10,000 from people who were 65 or older were late, in contrast. &nbsp;

Industry-wise, agriculture, forestry and fishing workers were late least often, as 109 out of each 10,000 of their returns missed the deadline. That figure was 390 out of 10,000 when it came to information and communication industry workers - the least impressive result by industry.

Help to Buy is helping British construction, Brandon Lewis, housing minister, has claimed in the wake of recent official&nbsp;figures about these government schemes.

Over 73,000 homes have thus far been purchased using the schemes, the latest numbers show.

Covering the period until November, they show 38,052 households have been supported to buy new builds using Help to Buy (equity loan).

Eight in ten of that number - 31,640 - were first time buyers, with 94 per cent of relevant sales taking place in locations other than London.

Stats released in October show 30,169 have purchased homes (some newly created, some pre-existing) using Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee. And November stats show more than 5,500 households have used NewBuy to get a newly built property.

Help to Buy (equity loan) alone is said to be supporting up to 76,000 jobs for construction workers and others in the industry.

A variety of infrastructure-themed recommendations to government have been presented in a new report from the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE).

Simon McVicker, the organisation&#39;s director of policy and external affairs, has said that being able to access the right infrastructure is essential for &quot;the self-employed economy&quot; to succeed.

The organisation says that its proposals, which touch on things like better workhub access and internet coverage, would not cost much and would be simple to bring into action - yet they would benefit self employed people and the country more widely.

The report, which came out on January 5th, is called &#39;The IPSE Manifesto: Infrastructure for independent working; boosting workhubs, broadband and mobile coverage&#39;. It can be read for free online.

One person who failed to comply with HMRC&#39;s tax return deadline date of January 31st went on to tell the tax authority their dog ate the return document - and every reminder too - it has been revealed.

This is just one of the less-than-impressive excuses that people have actually given HMRC after they missed the deadline.

The authority has just published a list of such poor excuses, which were made when people appealed against penalties for filing their tax return late and paying late.

One person claimed they had been atop a Welsh mountain - without internet access or a post box. Then there&#39;s the individual who claimed that US president Barack Obama was actually in charge of their finances.&nbsp; Another man or woman said they became part of &lsquo;the wrong crowd&rsquo;.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the appeals in which these excuses were made proved unsuccessful.

&ldquo;People can have a genuine excuse for missing a tax deadline, but owning a pet with a taste for HMRC envelopes isn&rsquo;t one of them,&rdquo; commented Ruth Owen, HMRC director general of personal tax.

Nicky Morgan has announced new help for schools and other organisations who teach what is being termed &#39;character&#39; to young people.

A fund worth &pound;3.5 million is set to help expand &#39;character&#39; teaching efforts with the aim of putting character education on the same pegging as more academic studies in England, the Department of Education reports.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that self employment&#39;s &#39;meteoric rise&#39; isn&#39;t showing any sign of becoming slower, the chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) has said.

The Labour Market numbers from the ONS, released December 17th, record a quarter-on-quarter slip in self employed numbers in the UK for August to October. But there are more people working full time and part time in this way than there were a year previously.

Some 3.25 million full time self employed workers were recorded, up 5.1 per cent, and 1.28 million part-time self employed, with the rise here&nbsp;6.5 per cent. Overall numbers of self employed were up 5.5 per cent year-on-year. &nbsp;

IPSE chief executive Mr Chris Bryce said that &quot;the ever increasing number of women becoming their own boss&quot; is especially welcome: &quot;There is a 9% increase in the number of women going it alone from a year ago which doubles the number of men becoming self-employed in the same time-frame,&quot; he commented.

People in infant school teaching jobs are now seeing more of their pupils having free school meals, thanks to a recently introduced government policy.

Nick Clegg launched the policy of letting all infants in English primary schools have free school meals earlier this year.

Now official data demonstrate uptake during the initial three months of the scheme, with 85 per cent of England&#39;s infant pupils getting free meals - 1,640,530 kids overall.

The deputy prime minister recently quipped, while visiting a school to take part in a festive cooking session, that people who were naysayers about the free meals policy could &quot;eat their hats, and all the leftover sprouts&quot;.

&quot;Well over a million and a half infants are enjoying a school meal at lunchtime, giving them a better start to afternoon lessons and a healthy boost for their first years in school. The other good news for families is that this saves them up to &pound;400 per child a year on the cost of a packed lunch,&quot; he also said.

There&#39;s been a rise in the number of self employed people during the last twelve months, Office of National Statistics (ONS) numbers show.

The UK Labour Market data from this month, which covers August to October, shows around 3.25 million full time and 1.28 million part time self employed people.

There&#39;s been a rise of 160,000 full time self employed people since a year before, while the rise in part time workers of this sort is 79,000.

Quarter on quarter, the number of self employed full timers is up a little compared to May to July, while the number of part timers fell.

Overall self employed numbers are down since May to July, by 0.6 per cent, but there are still about 4.5 million self employed.

The statistics show a record 30.8 million people employed, in total.&nbsp;

Reacting to the ONS figures more generally, Ian Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary, said: &quot;These remarkable figures show that our long term economic plan to create a better more prosperous future for Britain is working. Behind them are countless stories of individual hard-work and determination, with more people than ever before feeling financially secure.&quot;

The latest data shows 79 per cent of 11 year old pupils getting level 4s or more in the so-called 3Rs,&nbsp;maths, writing and reading - a rise of three percentage points since last year, the Department for Education has announced.

Meanwhile, 67 per cent managed a 4b or over in these subjects -&nbsp;4b being a higher grade.

For disadvantaged pupils, 67 per cent hit maths, writing and reading level 4s or over, against a lower 61 per cent in 2012.

Primaries where under 65 per cent of children get level 4s or over for maths, reading and writing, and which are behind on progress measures for those areas of learning, are deemed below &#39;floor standard&#39;. That 65 per cent figure has been raised from 60 per cent, which was the threshold last year. &nbsp;

Still, the proportion under floor standard has stayed stable year on year, with some six per cent of mainstream, state funded primaries under &#39;floor standard&#39;.

&quot;I am pleased to see that primaries have responded to the challenge of a higher floor standard - we have raised the bar and schools have raised their game,&quot; commented David Laws, schools minister.

&quot;It is also encouraging to see the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers continue to narrow and parents, teachers and pupils deserve to be congratulated for their efforts,&quot; he added, referencing people in teaching jobs.

The minister said the government is aware that further work is needed and too many places exist where there are &quot;unacceptable&quot; attainment levels for disadvantaged children.

He spoke of the government&#39;s commitment to supporting schools in doing more, and mentioned the raising of the pupil premium.

HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) has just announced a Solicitors&#39; Tax Campaign, which solicitors can register their participation in until March 9th next year. &nbsp;

The tax authority reports that the campaign will allow such professionals to clear up their tax affairs on particularly good terms, should they need to.&nbsp;

Participants will have up to June 9th next year to tell HMRC about tax they have outstanding and get the cash to the authority.

According to HMRC head of campaigns, Caroline Addison, quoted by the authority, HMRC has identified, through information gathering, &quot;solicitors who thought they could operate without declaring income and paying the taxes that others have to pay&quot;.

She told people that haven&#39;t told HMRC about all their income that they must sort out their tax affairs and urged them to use the campaign to present themselves and soft things out. &quot;It will be easier and cheaper for you to come to us than for us to come to you,&quot; she warned.

People who present themselves through the campaign will face lower penalties than they might were the tax authority to have approached them.

Similar campaigns have been run for people in the medical, tutoring, plumbing and other sectors in the past.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority reports that there are 133,327 practicing solicitors who have practicing certificates in Wales and England, as of October this year.

The government has recently given word of a number of new actions linked to the provision of homes.

For example, with its help, up to 13,000 new properties for people to live in will be provided by a Bicester garden town, in an initiative being spearheaded locally. Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, is set to get 10,000 fresh&nbsp;homes, in public sector land which isn&#39;t needed for other things, in government-led action.

From 2015-2020, there&#39;s now the goal to bring about the release of sufficient surplus public sector land to create 150,000 homes.

And the government is supporting the planned provision of 11,000 fresh homes in the East London Barking Riverside area as well as 7,500 in a Brent Cross development project.

&quot;We&rsquo;ve seen how getting the country building has been key to our long term economic plan &ndash; helping hard-working people become homeowners and creating thousands of construction jobs,&quot; said Eric Pickles, communities secretary.

&quot;Today we&rsquo;re offering a blueprint for how we maintain this momentum, supporting local communities to deliver the homes they want to see, making the best possible use of brownfield land and protecting the Green Belt.&quot;

He said that this action, alongside government plans about a fresh affordable homes construction programme, could bring about more than 200,000 new homes.

The government&#39;s affordable homes scheme is now hoped to create 275,000 places to live from 2015 to 2020.

Meanwhile, the government has given word of initial recipients of part of &pound;150 million for London housing estate regeneration, too.

A new&nbsp;&pound;67 million scheme to train-up an extra 17,500 people for physics and maths teaching jobs has been announced.

Aimed at bringing in new recruits as well as well as re-training people already in teaching jobs who are not specialists in the subjects, the initiative will run during the course of the next parliament. It is set to feature action such as bursaries for young people who&nbsp;take degrees in physics or maths, if they agree that they will teach following graduation.

The move is part of science, maths and tech action from the government, just announced by David Cameron.

It&#39;s hoped to retrain 15,000 people who are already teaching as well as bring in up to 2,500 new specialists. This comes in addition to existing work to boost teacher numbers in this area.

&quot;There&rsquo;s no secret to success in the modern world. If countries are going to win in the global race and children compete and get the best jobs, you need mathematicians and scientists &ndash; pure and simple. So today, we commit to deliver more maths and science teachers,&quot; the prime minister commented.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801764703Mon, 08 Dec 2014 12:09:55 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801764703Proportion of trainee teachers with a first hits record

A record 17 per cent of trainee teachers who began their training this year (2014/15) previously gained a first in their degree, while 73 per cent have at least a 2:1.

That&#39;s according to initial teacher training census data released by the Department for Education last week.

The government has been promoting various scholarships and bursaries for trainees. It also has a new recruitment drive linked to teaching jobs, called &#39;Your future their future&#39;.

&quot;We want the best and brightest teachers in our schools to ensure pupils have the right skills needed to succeed in life and to help the UK compete in the global economy - this is a vital part of our plan for education,&quot; commented National College for Teaching and Leadership chief executive, Charlie Taylor.

The initial teacher training census also shows a large hike in people beginning computer teacher training.

Employers, payroll bureau, software developers and payroll and employer representative organisations are set to come together on December 4th for the first ever meeting of the Employment and Payroll Group (EPG), a stakeholder group arranged by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Government departments are set to use the group to engage with payroll and employment stakeholders on operational issues around PAYE.

Among other things, the group will be a means through which HMRC can alert stakeholders to important changes to process and policy, and consult them about operational details.

The body subsumes the payroll Consultation Panel, the Expenses and Benefits Group and the Employment Consultation Forum.

&quot;EPG came about as a result of a wide review of stakeholder engagement and is intended to be HMRC&rsquo;s principal consultation forum for employers and their intermediaries,&quot; said Ruth Owen, director general for personal tax at HMRC.&nbsp;

The group&#39;s focus is set to be &quot;high level operational policy and process issues&quot; she said, and it will let members talk about issues relating to the administering of payroll obligations or relating to employment tax more widely.

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) has outlined a range of proposals for the government, to improve matters when it comes to late payments from clients - something that people who are self employed are sometimes impacted by.

The proposals are part of a report from the organisation called Late payment and dispute resolution for the self employed.

This publication proposes bringing in a Small Business Conciliation Service to help with late payment disputes, toughening sanctions linked to late payments and improving the Prompt Payment Code.

&quot;Late payment is a crucial issue for small businesses and the self-employed. It jeopardises financial security and damages reputations, thereby reducing the likelihood the self-employed will be engaged again,&quot; warned IPSE director of policy and public affairs, Simon McVicker.

There are over 4.5 million people self employed in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics, with 3.25 million full-time and 1.27 million part-time.

David Morris MP has been named by the government as an ambassador for the self employed.

The announcement was made on November 19th, National Freelancers Day.

Director of policy and external affairs for The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed, Simon McVicker, said the move demonstrates government is ready to act on issues that impact independent workers.

&quot;It is immensely encouraging to hear Mr Morris, MP for Morecambe &amp; Lunesdale and a small business owner himself, will champion our cause at the very heart of government,&quot; he said.

The most recent Office for National Statistics employment data shows 3.25 million people full time self employed and 1.27 million part time self employed in the UK.

Themed around ways Labour can help self employed people, should it gain power, the event is being held by shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves and shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, both of whom are Labour MPs.

In a move linked to the event, Labour has highlighted Office for National Statistics numbers showing that, for example, this side of 2010 there has been a 13 per cent hike in self employed numbers.

&quot;In recent years we&rsquo;ve seen a marked rise in people choosing to become their own boss, but at the same time self-employed people&rsquo;s incomes have been hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis,&quot; said Chuka Umunna on Monday.

&quot;And all too often self-employed people are being held back and ignored by government and we&rsquo;ve seen entire programmes put in place by ministers which fail to take their needs into account,&quot; he claimed.

He added that this is why Labour is holding its summit&nbsp;this week, placing the self employed at the centre of its plans.

The chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) has highlighted self employment rises seen in the most recent Office for National Statistics employment data.

Chris Bryce noted the 6.6 per cent year-on-year hike in self employed people, and the fact that close to 15 per cent of the workforce is now self employed in the UK.

&quot;People from all walks of life are choosing to work independently, including young people straight from university,&quot; he said.

&quot;The latest ONS figures also show the number of women in self-employment is up 8.6 per cent on year, which is far outstripping the growth of men working independently.&quot;

Commenting on November 12th, Mr Bryce also took the opportunity to promote National Freelancers Day, which takes place later this week.

He explained that the event is set to demonstrate &quot;the important work&quot; freelancers do in the UK. It is happening this Wednesday, November 19th.

The most recent UK Labour Market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows a year-on-year rise in the numbers who are self employed.

Covering July to September this year, the data shows 3.25 million who are full-time self employed, as well as 1.27 million who are part-time self employed.

The number working this way full time is up by 186,000 year-on-year, while the number doing so part time has risen by 93,000 in the same period.

Quarter-on-quarter, self employment was down, however. with 0.6 per cent fewer doing this sort of work full time and 5.1 per cent fewer doing it part time, compared to April to June this year.

Overall, 30.79 million were recorded as in work, up 694,000 year-on-year, while the employment rate was 73 per cent.

Commenting on the latest ONS jobs stats, Esther McVey, the employment minister, said: &quot;Record numbers of people in work means more people with the security of a regular wage who are better able to support themselves and their families.&quot;

She noted that most of the employment rise year on year was made up of people working full time, saying: &quot;it&rsquo;s clear that thanks to the government&rsquo;s long-term economic plan, we are helping businesses to create the jobs that people need.&quot;

It&#39;s &quot;hugely important&quot; to celebrate the UK&#39;s self-employed, the government ambassador for women and enterprise has indicated, as she endorsed the upcoming National Freelancers Day.

As the November 19th occasion draws ever closer, ambassador and MP Lorely Burt commented: &ldquo;Record numbers of people across the UK are choosing self-employment so it&rsquo;s hugely important that we celebrate these enterprising individuals.

&quot;The decision to go it alone and start a microbusiness is an incredibly brave one and I&rsquo;m delighted that National Freelancers Day gives them the recognition they deserve.&quot;

It comes as Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that 4.58 million people in the UK are self employed.

National Freelancers Day is the work of The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE - formally PCG), and will feature a main London event as well as other events nationally.

IPSE director of policy and external affairs, Simon McVicker, has said that the fact that the enterprise ambassador supports the occasion &quot;shows that decision makers are sitting up and listening to independent professionals&quot;.

A new religious studies GCSE is being proposed, which people in teaching jobs may have to begin teaching in 2016.

It will mean pupils are required to undertake study about two religions.

The course was released for consultation on November 7th and has the approval of faith groups and churches according to the government.

During the first part of the course, it is proposed, pupils will have to learn about two or more religions in terms of what they believe, what they teach and the sources they refer to.

A second part of the course will allow pupils to go into further detail about one or both of these religions.

Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education, explained that the course protects faith schools&#39; right to mainly focus on their own faith, but also means students must show they understand about Britain&#39;s diversity of faiths.

&quot;By ensuring that young people learn about more than just one religion this new GCSE will better prepare students for life in modern Britain. I would like to thank all the religious organisations who have contributed to this process for their help developing the new content,&quot; she said.

People in teaching jobs, pupils and possibly the odd parent or two - these are all people you expect to see in a school. But WWE wrestling stars? Not usually!

However, a trio of famous WWE faces, Paige, Big E and Kofi Kingston, recently appeared alongside minister Edward Timpson at a lucky London school.

Children and families minister Timpson and the trio appeared at an Ark Glove Academy assembly - the WWE stars as part of a tour around the UK.

The assembly, on the theme of bullying, was held in the run up to the Anti-Bullying Alliance&#39;s Anti-Bullying Week. WWE often holds assemblies like this in America, as part of the organisation&#39;s Be a STAR campaign.

Particular focus at the event was placed on discussing the theme of the bullying that can sometimes be faced by kids who have SEND - special educational needs and disabilities.

&quot;To help support children with SEND we&rsquo;ve introduced new guidance to ensure schools do all they can to make sure their needs are met. Every school has to be able to show how they prevent bullying and this should now include children with SEND,&quot; commented Mr Timpson.

National Freelancers Day this year has been dubbed &quot;the most important&quot;&nbsp;staging of the event ever, by Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) chair, Julie Stewart.

The national event is scheduled for November 19th and it&#39;s the sixth time it has been held.

&quot;We&#39;re amidst a microbusiness utopia - the UK&#39;s independent professionals and the self-employed are growing by the minute. This celebration will go a long way to recognise their contribution to the economy and the important work of this sector which is driving the UK&#39;s economic growth,&quot; commented Ms Stewart.

The event&#39;s theme will be &#39;The future is here&#39; and it will be marked by activities including live events for London, Edinburgh and Manchester. The London event, at Tech City, will feature financial journalist Declan Curry, Labour MP Toby Perkins and others.

In the run up to the day, IPSE is encouraging self employed people to sign a tie-in petition on the Change.org website, which calls for the government to do things like put in place a self employment minister.

Simon McVicker, from the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE), has said that the upcoming Autumn Statement is the perfect chance for the chancellor to demonstrate &quot;how serious the Conservative Government is about supporting Britain&rsquo;s 4.6 million self-employed people,&quot; in the run up to next year&#39;s general election.

The IPSE, of which McVicker is head of policy and external affairs, has provided the government with policy ideas aimed at helping independent professionals, after the government asked for suggestions for George Osborne&#39;s Autumn Statement, which will be made this December.

&quot;The policy proposals we are recommending will deliver a simpler tax system, a flexible pension scheme, a fairer approach to training and most importantly, a level playing field for independent professionals,&quot; said McVicker.

The organisation&#39;s proposals include creating a body that would look into merging national insurance and income tax contributions.

Among other things, it also wants getting training to develop new skills to be tax-deductible, which it thinks would help people who want portfolio careers.

It comes after the organisation brought out Britain&rsquo;s Secret Economic Weapon, its self-employment manifesto, which includes various recommendations for policy.

Office for National Statistics data suggests that there are some 4.6 million people who are self employed in the UK, as Mr McVicker referenced.

Construction workers will likely be pleased by the Q3 2014 new home registration numbers, showing 36,343 homes registered.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) figure, showing registrations it has handled from July to September, is the biggest seen since 2007, the organisation reports.

Registrations were also up eight per cent year-on-year, with 28,468 for the private sector and 7,875 for the public. The private sector number was up 14 per cent year-on-year.

The organisation has predicted public sector registrations are set to return to growth, helped by the Affordable Housing Programme from the government.

Between Q3 last year and Q3 this year, private sector registrations rose: In that quarter of 2013, the figure was 24,984, in Q3 2014 it was 28,468.

On the other hand, public sector registrations numbered 8,589 for Q3 2013 and a lower 7,875 for Q3 2014.

Quoted by the&nbsp;NHBC, Mike Quinton,&nbsp;chief executive,&nbsp;spoke positively about the numbers, saying: &quot;Our figures show that the sharp housing upturn we have seen over the last couple of years is a genuine broad-based recovery across the whole of the country.&quot;

He also added: &quot;We must not lose sight of the fact that the UK still has a chronic shortage of new homes.&quot;

Earlier this month, the government released data showing that England has seen the provision of over 200,000 fresh affordable homes in the time since April 2010.

&quot;Today&rsquo;s figures are a clear sign of the government&rsquo;s long-term economic plan in action, with affordable homes being delivered across England,&quot; Brandon Lewis, housing minister, said.

The number of pupils persistently missing school in England has hit a record low, according to new data released by the government.

Last year (2013/14) in the autumn term and spring term, 176,850 fewer young people were persistently absent compared to in that period of 2009/10.

The latest overall figure of 262,255 pupils persistently absent is the smallest on comparable record.

Meanwhile, the latest data shows more pupils attending school regularly than has previously been seen in comparable records.

The number of schools days lost because of absence in autumn/spring 2013/14 was 35.7 million, down 10.1 million since the same time in 2009/10.

The overall absence rate was 4.4 per cent, down over 25 per cent over the same timeframe.

And there was a fall of close to a third in numbers not attending lessons in order to go on holiday. This follows the government tightening term-time holiday rules.

&quot;Our plan for education is getting more young people than ever before back in class, helping thousands more to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations,&quot; commented Nick Gibb, school reform minister, in the wake of the new data.

&quot;Missing lessons can be hugely damaging to a pupil&rsquo;s education - but today&rsquo;s figures show more pupils than ever before are getting the best preparation for life in modern Britain.&quot;

He also noted that the data shows people in teaching jobs can be more and more confident about pupils&#39; commitment and behaviour in class.

There&#39;s another General Election on the way, with the next such poll planned for May 2015. And it seems that the vast majority of freelancers in the UK will probably vote.

New research which The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) commissioned has found that 88 per cent of such workers will likely take part in the election.

&ldquo;The results of this survey prove just how engaged in the political process self-employed people are. With 4.6 million people currently working in this way in Britain and 90% of them likely to vote in May, politicians should be taking the &lsquo;freelance vote&rsquo; very seriously indeed,&quot; said IPSE director of policy and external affairs, Simon McVicker.

He added that, for microbusiness owners, the next government&#39;s policies may mean &quot;the difference between success and failure&quot;.

Mr McVicker also talked about the manifesto IPSE recently released, and - touching on a recommendation in it - said that, should any party commit to the appointment of a self-employment minister, this would do much to convince independent professionals that those who make policy &quot;are serious about helping microbusinesses&quot;.

The 4.6 million figure cited by Mr McVicker is from the Office for National Statistics, which recently announced a rise in the amount of self employed people working full time in the UK as well as the amount working part time.

Following Office for National Statistics data showing that the level of people becoming self employed is growing much faster than the equivalent figure for more traditional employment, Chris Bryce of The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed has given his take on the findings.

&quot;Today&#39;s figures show that self-employment is growing at more than three times the rate of traditional employment. This is proof that the rise in self-employment is here to stay as Britain gets back to work,&quot; Mr Bryce, the organisation&#39;s chief executive said.

He added that people coming from every walk of life are opting to move away from &quot;the 9-5&quot; and gain control of their destinies.

But he urged that decision makers need to react to the&nbsp;unprecedented popularity of self employment.

Very small businesses provide an engine for the economy in the UK, he explained, and require action in areas causing issues.

He cited examples of areas like late payment, tax laws such as IR35, which he indicated was &quot;inappropriate and unnecessarily complicated&quot; and there not being enough affordable work space.

There has been a rise of 187,000 in full time self employed people, according to new UK Labour Market data from the Office for National Statistics.

After this year-on-year hike, the number in June to August 2014 was recorded at 3.25 million.

Meanwhile, there were 1.27 million people working part-time self employed, up 92,000 on a year before.

Overall, the figures show 30.76 million people employed, with unemployment experiencing the biggest year-on-year tumble since records started in the 70s. There were less than two million people unemployed in June to August.

The rate of unemployment was recorded at six per cent, having been 7.7 per cent for June to August 2013.

&quot;All of our reforms are focussed on helping people into work and today&rsquo;s record figures show that the government&rsquo;s long-term economic plan to help businesses create jobs and get people working again is proving successful,&quot; employment minister Esther McVey has said.

Councils are getting extra borrowing powers, with the aim that this will boost their construction of affordable homes, as part of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing programme.

Brandon Lewis gave word today (October 9th) that 22 local authorities are going to have the chance to get an extra &pound;122 million of lending in the coming two years.

This will support the creation of more than 1,700 extra affordable homes.

The 22 councils mentioned by the housing minister today include 16 that have previously been given permission for &pound;62 million in extra borrowing, to be used for more than 1,000 homes.

Six other councils also mentioned by the minister will be getting another &pound;60 million.

He is urging other councils to get involved in the scheme.

&quot;With &pound;178 million additional borrowing still up for grabs I want more councils to do their bit, to follow in the footsteps of these 22, and bid for the very powers they asked for,&quot; he commented.

It comes after a lot of councils requested the sort of borrowing powers the scheme provides.

Construction workers have benefited from the fact that, since 2010, close to 500,000 new homes have been created.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801753471Thu, 09 Oct 2014 12:12:03 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801753471Government asked to boost help for self employed in new petition

November 19th this year is National Freelancers Day and, as the day approaches, a tie-in petition has been launched by IPSE and posted on the Change.org website.

This is set to be given to the government on National Freelancers Day.

IPSE chief executive, Chris Bryce, says that the document includes &quot;bold yet realistic ways that politicians can help independent professionals to get on&quot; and has urged people who work for themselves to support it.

As he explained, the petition is looking for the creation of a Minister for Self Employment and for government action over late payments from clients to small businesses, for example.

&quot;With backing from independent professionals nationwide, this petition can help convince our Government that if we really want to secure the UK&#39;s future as the world&#39;s most advanced innovation-driven economy, we need to create a microbusiness utopia right here in Britain,&quot; Mr Bryce said.

People in teaching jobs are soon set to teach a fresh GCSE on the subject of cooking and nutrition, which will be brought in starting September 2016.&nbsp;

Nick Gibb, school reform minister, gave word of the move late last month.&nbsp;

On September 25th the government brought out a consultation about what would feature in the course, as well as new content for drama, design and technology, and citizenship GCSEs and A Level drama and theatre.&nbsp;

The new cooking course will focus on nutrition and food science, as well as practical food preparation.&nbsp;

&ldquo;At the heart of any food qualification should be a focus on developing practical cookery skills and a strong understanding of nutrition,&rdquo; according to Mr Gibb.&nbsp;

He also claimed that the GCSE will provide those who take it with preparation for hospitality and food sector success and give them crucial life skills.&nbsp;

The course combines elements of GCSE food, GCSE home economics and GCSE hospitality and catering, while adding new science related topics.

Prime minister David Cameron&rsquo;s address yesterday (October 1st) as part of the Conservative Party Conference included numerous measures that will probably go down well in the business community, according to a representative from the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE).&nbsp;

Senior public affairs manager for the organisation, Andy Chamberlain, said that Cameron&rsquo;s tax reduction promises - impacting individuals and people - will support the creation of an enterprise-conducive environment: &ldquo;Good news for independent professionals and their clients&rdquo;.&nbsp;

But he also said it was a shame Mr Cameron hadn&rsquo;t made specific reference to self employment in the address, &ldquo;and acknowledge[ed] the important contribution this sector has made to Britain&rsquo;s current economic strength, as Labour leader Ed Miliband did in his speech last week&rdquo;.

&ldquo;We look forward to hearing more tailored policies for this sector along the lines of those outlined in IPSE&rsquo;s manifesto,&rdquo; he added, explaining that this publication features a plan to help the millions of British self employed.&nbsp;

Between September last year and August this year, 137,500 new homes in the UK were registered, new&nbsp;NHBC&nbsp;statistics show.&nbsp;

And while in June to August 2013 33,593 registrations were recorded, this was up six per cent in June to August 2014, when 35,621 underwent registration.

The numbers, from the organisation whose Buildmark warranty covers eight in ten new UK homes, show 10,742 registrations in August this year, up ten per cent on August 2013.&nbsp;

For June to August, 26,876 registrations were in the private sector and 8,745 in the public sector. For August itself, the numbers were 8,293 and 2,449 respectively.&nbsp;

The figures were released just before another piece of news that will have caught the eye of construction workers: Eric Pickles&rsquo; launch of the Rent to Buy initiative, which is worth &pound;400 million and is aimed at creating more rental homes, with the idea that those living in them will later be able to become home owners with the scheme&rsquo;s help.&nbsp;

The latest figures released for the Help to Buy scheme - launched by the coalition government in April 2013 - have shown that the scheme continues to be a success for both the property and construction sectors.&nbsp;

In the latest report, the government said that 53,000 people have now made use of the scheme, which allows them to purchase brand new homes with a deposit of just five per cent. In theory, it allows a far higher number of people to get their foot onto the property ladder.

Almost 80 per cent of these sales have been made to first-time buyers, showing just how important this group is to the construction sector as a whole.

Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said: &quot;Almost 53,000 households have now benefited through Help to Buy in England. Hard working families are getting the right support to step onto the housing ladder, and house building has climbed to its highest level since 2007,&quot; which shows yet more positives for the house building market.&nbsp;

A greater number of new homes at affordable prices may need to be built across the UK in the next few years as an increasing number of young people in the UK are priced out of the market, according to the latest report from the National Association of Real Estate Agents (NAEA).&nbsp;

It said that while the number of new buyers who are getting themselves onto the property ladder has climbed from 20 per cent to 28 per cent between July and August, this has mostly been among older investors.&nbsp;

The number of 18 to 30-year olds who are getting themselves a home has remained low, while the volume of 31 to 40-year olds getting onto the ladder has climbed to 45 per cent of all new buyers.&nbsp;

&quot;Reports from our members suggest that the high house prices of the current housing market are still proving a barrier for the younger generation. It is evident that first time buyers are indeed getting older,&quot; said Mark Hayward, managing director of the NAEA.&nbsp;

House prices have been rising since the government introduced the Help to Buy scheme in the early part of 2013, which allowed people to get themselves a house with just a five per cent deposit. However, it has highlighted a need for more affordable properties to be built.&nbsp;

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801751726Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:51:16 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801751726Could Help to Buy expansion help with deposits?

The Help to Buy market has helped more than 50,000 people get onto the property ladder in the past year and a half, but there are still many people who can&#39;t afford to save for a deposit to get themselves a mortgage.&nbsp;

It could mean that an expansion of the Help to Buy scheme would mean it became easier to get people onto the ladder, increasing construction and helping to ease the supply and demand crisis.&nbsp;

Insurance firm Genworth said that people who are putting money away for a mortgage are able to set aside some &pound;264 per month. However, this sort of saving would mean that anyone who starts saving now would not have enough by the time Help to Buy&#39;s five per cent deposit offer comes to an end in 2017.

Could the government then extend the scheme in order to help more people save for a mortgage?

&quot;Help to Buy has significantly improved access to mortgages with deposits that are actually realistic to save. The numbers using the scheme may be modest, but it has made significant inroads in the short-term to boost access at the lower end of the property market,&quot; said Simon Crone, vice president for mortgage insurance Europe at Genworth.

More EU migrants are now helping to address the UK skills gap, according to the latest jobs report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).&nbsp;

It comes at a time when it is reported that highly-skilled jobs in the UK are facing struggles to fill roles because of a lack of graduates from the nation who are well-prepared for the roles.

The CIPD survey of more than 1,000 employers in the UK has shown that more and more fast-growing businesses are now turning to skilled employees from overseas who have the requisite skills to fill roles.&nbsp;

Peter Cheese, chief executive at the CIPD, said: &ldquo;Employers have been turning to EU migrants that are a bit older and have more work experience than young people in the UK &ndash; emphasising the competitive nature of the market for entry level jobs.&quot;

He added that this skilled migrant culture showed that many of the negative perceptions of immigration are, in fact, ill-founded.&nbsp;

The government has given word that several financial incentives for people training to be teachers have been increased.
The idea is that this will help bring top graduates to this sort of training and into teaching jobs.

For example there is a &pound;25,000 bursary available, tax free, for trainees who can offer a First Class degree in in maths, languages, chemistry or computing, or a 2:1 or First in physics.This has been raised for the 2015 to 2016 year, from the &pound;20,000 seen for 2014 to 2015.

Meanwhile, there are &pound;20,000 bursaries on offer for those who have 2:1 degrees in languages or chemistry. This is &pound;15,000 if graduates can offer a 2:2. These bursaries have been boosted from &pound;15,000 and &pound;12,000 respectively in 2014 to 2015.

Other financial incentives have also been boosted or introduced for the coming year, linked to subjects such as RE and geography.

&quot;Teaching is not only a hugely rewarding career but it also offers fantastic opportunity for progression. We want to attract the best and brightest graduates into the profession, to inspire even more young people to achieve their full potential,&quot; said David Laws, schools minister.

George Anastasi of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) has called George Osborne&#39;s latest address &nbsp;&quot;hugely encouraging for small businesses&quot;.

It comes after the chancellor of the exchequer spoke at the Conservative Party Conference, which is currently underway and will be ending October 1st.

&quot;The chancellor&rsquo;s commitment to cutting taxes for businesses and his recognition of the self-employed goes a long way to highlight the immense contribution this important sector makes to the UK economy every year,&quot; Mr Anastasi, IPSE policy development manager, said in reaction.

He mentioned that the chancellor had spoken about infrastructure improvement and said this ought to be prioritised by the coming government.

Mr Anastasi also said that a manifesto IPSE has brought out for self employed people provides a variety of policies government could bring in &quot;to unlock the potential of the UK&#39;s smallest businesses&quot;.

He also explained that IPSE is looking forward to the chancellor&#39;s speech having the backing of decisive and positive action to improve things for independent professionals.

Eric Pickles launched another government move aimed at helping with home building on Friday (September 26th).

The communities secretary marked the introduction of rental home building initiative Rent to Buy - worth &pound;400 million.

&quot;Both house building and the number of first time buyers are now at their highest rate since 2007,&quot; commented Mr Pickles, citing facts construction workers may already be aware of. &nbsp;

&quot;But there is more to do. As part of our wider housing programme, this new scheme will help increase the provision of low-cost rented accommodation and provide a springboard for young people to upgrade to home ownership down the line.&quot;

Rent to Buy is said to give additional flexibility for people to rent while saving up to buy, then become home owners later on.

Providers such as housing associations are able to bid for loans and use these in the creation of new homes, which will be built starting next year and will most commonly be flats with one or two bedrooms.

Landlords have to let out the these properties using below market prices for at least seven years. After the fixed period, tenants get first refusal on making a purchase of their home.

Labour leader Ed Miliband recently made the self employed a feature of his party conference speech - a fact that the IPSE has reacted positively to.

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed&#39;s Simon McVicker has said that the fact the MP recognised how important self employed people are and spoke about the sector as a key element of his address is &quot;encouraging&quot;.

Mr McVicker also mentioned the importance of the big parties taking notice of independent professionals, and said that Mr Miliband did just that.

Praising Labour&#39;s recognition of the importance of rights like maternity pay and pensions to people taking the self employed route, McVicker added: &quot;These enterprising individuals must not be burdened by rights in a way that may make them unappealing to their clients&quot;. &nbsp;

He said his organisation was looking forward to getting further detail about how Mr Miliband&#39;s party wants to support people in the sector. &nbsp;

The latest government data shows that 74 per cent of six year old children are hitting the standard expected for reading, a rise of 16 percentage points since 2012.

It comes after the phonics reading check was brought in for children of this age. Introduced three years ago, this lets people in teaching jobs spot the children whose reading progress may be slower than desired.

Since the previous year, there has been a five percentage point rise in six year olds hitting the expected reading standard, the latest data shows.

As well as bringing in the phonics reading check, the government offered over &pound;20 million to schools to help with their phonics teaching resources, and has taken a range of other phonics-related action.

&quot;Today&rsquo;s figures provide irrefutable evidence that our plan for education is working for young people across Britain with 100,000 more six-year olds now on track to become proficient readers as a result of our relentless emphasis on phonics,&quot; Nick Gibb, school reform minister, has claimed.

&quot;Had we not done so, those pupils would still be struggling today.&quot;

September 2nd marked the start of the new free school meal strategy for children in the initial years of school.

The government action, announced by Nick Clegg in 2013, means that all children in school years from reception to year two can get meals for free in state schools.

Specifically, 1.89 million children in this age group, attending 16,500 schools, are eligible.

It&#39;s estimated that families will save as much as &pound;400 annually, thanks to the scheme, based on data in The School Food Plan, an independent review carried out for the Department of Education. This review recommended free meals for all primary children.

And those in teaching jobs could see kids&#39; results improve because of the new meals initiative. &nbsp;

During pilot studies, kids provided with free meals were up to two months further on in English and maths than those at other schools, for example, according to The School Food Plan.

&quot;All the evidence, including the pilots in Durham and Newham, shows that free school meals will not only help ease the pressure on household budgets and encourage positive eating, but will also help improve concentration and raise educational performance,&quot; commented Mr Clegg, the deputy prime minister.

Starting today, PCG has changed its name to IPSE, the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed.

The organisation says the rebrand is so that it can represent all the UK&#39;s independent professional workers who are involved in the self-employed sector.

The move follows the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) numbers showing 4.59million self employed - more than ever recorded before.

&quot;Every month thousands of people are waking up to the benefits that come with starting a business and IPSE will be there to ensure they are supported and protected every step of the way,&quot; said IPSE chief executive, Chris Boyd, in the wake of the name change.

He also said that his organisation aims to put self employment at the centre of &quot;the economic debate&quot; within government, and make sure there are policies to increase the ease with which people can become - and be - self employed.

Fewer children aged 15 or below have been entered for GCSEs, Joint Council for Qualifications data shows.

While there were 806,000 last year, that has gone down to 489,000 according to the most recent numbers.

Nick Gibb, school reform minister, has given his congratulations to pupils and those in teaching jobs following the recently released GCSE results, and highlighted the 40 per cent fall in 15-and-under entries.

The percentage of entrants aged 15 getting A* to A grades has risen five percentage points year-on-year, to 19 per cent. The proportion getting A*s to Cs rose ten percentage points, to 68 per cent.

&quot;Pupils and parents can feel increasingly confident that the exam system is now working in their favour - that the GCSEs and subjects they are taking are those most valued by colleges, employers and universities, and will help young people to succeed in modern Britain,&quot; Mr Gibb has also commented.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801745056Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:34:05 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801745056NEET numbers down to lowest this side of 2000

Recent government stats show the amount of England&#39;s young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) has dropped lower than it has been for nine years.

A set of figures which Nick Boles, Skills Minister, has claimed demonstrate the way the government&#39;s changes &quot;are properly equipping young people for life in modern Britain&quot;&nbsp;also show both the amount and proportion of NEET 16 to 18 year olds were at the smallest comparable levels seen since 2000, when consistent records on the matter started.

The figures cover April to June this year, when 13.6 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 were NEET, down 1.9 percentage points year-on year - a fall of 125,000. The fall for those aged 16 to 18 was 22,000 or 1.1 percentage point, leaving eight per cent of people in this age group NEET.

&quot;With the number of young people not in education, employment or training at their lowest levels for 9 years we are seeing the huge progress being made to ensure they have the skills to pursue high-quality careers,&quot; commented Nick Boles.

&quot;This shows how our long-term economic plan is working and we will continue to focus on securing young people&rsquo;s future.&quot;

The new data has been influenced by a newly-raised participation age, meaning people must carry on being trained or educated after 16.

April to June this year saw 36,230 housing starts in England according to government statistics. That&#39;s an 18 per cent hike year-on-year.

For the last year, there have been 137,780 starts, which is 22 per cent up year-on-year, as well as the biggest number of starts since 2007.

Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis says the numbers are evidence that the long term plan from government to make housing market improvements is having a positive impact.

In good news for construction workers, the sector has seen 15 months on the trot of growth and companies are hiring new workers more quickly than at any point since 1997.

&quot;House building in England is up by over a fifth compared to last year, orders for building materials are rising at the quickest pace for 11 years, and companies are hiring new staff at the fastest rate since 1997. Hardworking tenants are also voting with their feet and taking up the Right to Buy,&quot; said Brandon Lewis.

He said the progress is testament to government work to change the planning system, support home buyers and help builders improve output.

He highlighted that further work is needed, with housing market improvement still a key part of the government&#39;s long-term plan for the economy.&nbsp;

Joint Council for Qualifications figures suggest that people in teaching jobs are seeing more pupils study science and maths at A Level.

This side of 2010 there have been 10.7 per cent more entries for biology. Chemistry is up 21.5 per cent and physics 18.5 per cent.

When it comes to maths, the subject has seen 15.3 per cent more entries, with further maths seeing a 20.1 per cent rise

There are also 10 per cent more young women specifically taking maths and 16 per cent more taking physics, with chemistry and biology seeing rises of 23 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

&quot;I&rsquo;m delighted to see more students, especially young women, studying maths and sciences and teachers having more time to push pupils to achieve the very top grades,&quot; &nbsp;Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, said.

Recently released Office for National Statistics (ONS) data covering April to June shows 4.59 million people are self employed.

Overall, 30.6 million were recorded as being in work, up by 820,000 year-on-year, according to the Labour Market Statistics.

Reacting to the latest ONS numbers, PCG senior public affairs manager Andy Chamberlain said: &quot;Current trends suggest that by next year there will be more self-employed professionals than people working in the public sector.&quot;

The spokesperson for the body, which represents independent professional workers, said that self employed people are pushing the economy in the right direction.

&quot;Let&rsquo;s continue to make it easier for the growing army of self-employed professionals by implementing tailored policies to help this important sector flourish and reach their full potential,&quot; he urged.

The School Teachers&#39; Review Body (STRB) - which advises government on conditions and pay for people in teaching jobs - has just had a new chair appointed, the government has announced. &nbsp;

New chair Dr Patricia Rice works for the University of Oxford, as associate head of research and a senior research fellow at the Department of Economics.

She has also been the School Teachers&#39; Review Body&#39;s economist member in the past and will now take the role of chair.

&quot;She has an exceptional understanding of the teaching workforce and education. Her leadership will be of great value to the STRB in its important work to consider pay and conditions for teachers,&quot; Nicky Morgan, the new secretary of state for education, said of Dr Rice.

Morgan was made education secretary last month, replacing Michael Gove in the role as part of a cabinet re-shuffle.&nbsp;

The new chair herself said she is looking forward to undertaking work with school leaders and teachers to make the teaching profession even stronger in Wales and England, the two nations the STRB&rsquo;s work covers.

A range of new university technical colleges are set to give young people the right skills to get &quot;the high-tech jobs of the future,&quot; the chancellor has said.

It came as George Osborne announced proposals for seven new such colleges as well as four studio schools, where people in teaching jobs will work. &nbsp;

These will create over 5,000 places for young people between the ages of 14 and 19 and include curriculums developed with the help of employers and universities, which have a stronger focus on vocational education.

It&#39;s said that their approach ensures attendees develop the right skills for a certain sector or region.

In total, there are now 50,000 places available or in the pipeline at studio schools and technical colleges.

&quot;University technical colleges are a key part of the government&rsquo;s long term economic plan because they help ensure young people have the right skills so they can maximise their potential,&quot; commented Mr Osborne.

&quot;The new colleges will provide the next generation of British workers with the skills they need to secure the high-tech jobs of the future.&quot;

The first university technical college opened in 2010, and these institutions have sponsorship from universities.

Studio schools date back to 2010 too, and give young people a chance to specialise in areas where there are local skills shortages.

One in four people who are about to begin their time at university (24 per cent) want to be self employed following graduation, recent stats show.

And 47 per cent say their desire for self employment has increased because of the recession and tricky employment conditions, the HSBC research shows.

A total of one-in-ten youngsters have plans to start their own business once their university experience has come to an end, according to the survey of people about to begin, and presently at, university.

Among the present students, 16 per cent said they had a desire to be self employed post-university.

Meanwhile, 57 per cent of the students of today would like to get work from an established business, against 50 per cent of those who are soon-to-be students.

&quot;Students are increasingly seeing self-employment as an attractive career option. They&rsquo;re also choosing more vocational subjects and making sure any part time job is relevant to their chosen career,&quot; commented HSBC&#39;s Andy Mielczarek.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801741146Mon, 11 Aug 2014 12:51:21 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801741146Close to 40,000 households have used Help to Buy

Newly released official data shows 32,500 households have purchased new homes via Help to Buy equity loan and Help to Buy NewBuy - both of which cover only new builds.

Meanwhile 7,300 have bought through Help to Buy mortgage guarantee, according to the figures announced by Brandon Lewis, housing and planning minister.

More than eight in ten of the overall Help to Buy sales involve first time buyers buying new build property. As a result, there was a 34 per cent hike in private housebuilding in Help to Buy&#39;s debut year.

As an industry, construction has grown for 14 months in a row. Businesses are hiring new people at a rate quicker than any seen for 17 years.

&quot;It&rsquo;s no accident that since the start of the scheme private housebuilding has shot up by a third and continues to climb. Developers are increasing their output, and taking on new workers at the fastest rate since records began,&quot; said Brandon Lewis, in words that are sure to encourage construction workers.

Starting next month, David Hoare is set to become the new Ofsted chair, replacing Baroness Sally Morgan in this&nbsp;role at the organisation well-known to those in teaching jobs.

The appointment was announced by Nicky Morgan, the recently appointed secretary of state for education.

Mr Hoare is presently chair of charity the Teenage Cancer Trust.

&quot;He is a proven business leader who has the expertise in leadership and governance crucial to helping Ofsted through a significant period of change and reform. He is also passionate about education,&quot; Morgan has said of Hoare.

Mr Hoare has over three decades of business experience and been chief executive or chair of a range of big companies.

He has had an involvement in the education sector for many years, too - in recent times as a Department for Education academies ambassador.

Baroness Sally Morgan, the departing chair, first took the position at Ofsted in 2011.

Contractors could be dragged into higher tax bands as the number of people paying this rate is expected to grow.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts that some 4.6 million people will pay tax at the 40 per cent rate by 2014-15, a figure that could rise by approximately nine million in the next 20 years.

Currently, the 40 per cent tax rate is &pound;41,865, but the OBR&rsquo;s calculation is based on the assumption that the government will increase this threshold in line with inflation.

The body&rsquo;s estimation also takes into account the fact that average earnings are expected to increase at a faster rate than prices, which may mean that the rate paid by all taxpayers could increase over time.

Contractors, many of whom wish to operate in a way that is as tax efficient as possible, may seek financial guidance from their accountants in order to prepare for paying tax at the higher rate.

There&#39;s been a lot of positive news out there for construction workers in recent months.

For example, at the tail end of last month, the National House Building Council (NHBC) revealed that it had handled 37,975 new home registrations in March to May, four per cent more than in this period of 2013.

The data shows that 13,220 such properties were registered in May, more than in any other month this year, though five per cent down on May 2013 (the peak month for that year) when 13,914 properties were registered.

&quot;House-building levels have remained steady, continuing through May and consolidating the high volumes seen in 2013,&quot; said Mike Quinton, NHBC chief executive.

He said the overall picture was one of steady improvement on already exceptional numbers seen in 2013. The hope is that the trend will carry on all through this year as the sector carries on recovering in impressive style, he added.

A range of the Secretary of State&#39;s responsibilities are being given to new regional schools commissioners (RSCs), who are set to do things like accepting applications for the creation of academy schools and take on other tasks linked to these institutions.

Recently, 32 academy head teachers who are going to be on these commissioners&#39; headteacher boards (HTBs) starting this September, were revealed by the Department for Education, voted into these positions by over 1,600 academy heads.

These just-elected HTB members are all in teaching jobs as headteachers, or have recently been headteachers. They represent schools whose management and leadership have been rated outstanding by Ofsted.

The PCG&#39;s Simon McVicker, director of policy and external affairs at the organisation for independent professional workers, has reacted to the latest Office for National Statistics employment data, which showed a rise in people who are self employed.

The organisation has hailed the data as reason to celebrate.

Mr McVicker explained that self employment has seen a growth rate that&#39;s close to five times that seen for traditional employment during the past year, to hit 4.58 million self employed, a record number.

He also pointed out that the fall in unemployment shown by the latest data was down partly to people opting for self employment.

The self employment expert also said it is encouraging that women had a central part in the rise of in this sort of work.

&quot;This is likely to partly be due to the flexibility that self-employment offers, making it easier to juggle work and family commitments and could also be indicative of a welcome societal shift in attitudes away from the idea that running a small business is the sole preserve of men,&quot; he said.

He also pointed out that, according to PCG&#39;s most recent Freelance Confidence Index, more than one in three people who are self employed have confidence that their income is set to go up during the coming year.

The UK employment rate&nbsp;has hit 73.1 per cent, according to the latest figures, matching a record level hit in 2005.

Official figures released today and covering March to May this year show that 920,000 more people were employed in this period than at the same time in 2013.

Overall, 30.6 million were working, 14.2 million of them women (a record number for female employment).

Unemployment fell more year-on-year than has been seen in close to 20 years, decreasing by 383,000. Not since 2008 has the rate of unemployment been lower, with latest data putting it at 6.5 per cent.

&quot;An important milestone has been reached in our country&rsquo;s recovery. With one of the highest employment rates ever, it&rsquo;s clear that the government&rsquo;s long-term economic plan to help businesses create jobs and get people working again is the right one,&quot; claimed Esther McVey, the employment minister.

When it comes to recruitment, there was a 117,000 rise in UK job vacancies between Q2 2013 and Q2 2014 - going up to a total of 648,000.

An online film about recent education reforms has been published by the Department for Education.

&#39;The school revolution&#39; includes people in teaching jobs, heads, educationalists and governors who have been involved in bringing reforms in during the past four years, or seen their effects.

&quot;This film demonstrates the breadth and variety of the improvements in England&rsquo;s schools today,&quot; claimed Michael Gove, the education secretary, who it has recently been announced is leaving this role.

He added that the people in the video are examples of thousands who have seen progress being made and wish to see continued momentum.

The recent cabinet reshuffle by David Cameron saw Gove move from education secretary to chief whip, and Nicky Morgan given the education secretary role.

Among the various reforms touched on in the film is the fact that Building Schools for the Future was replaced with a reworked approach for building and refurbishing such buildings.

As part of action from the government to improve support for people over 50 in the world of work, Dr Ros Altmann CBE has just been announced as Business Champion for Older Workers.

The consumer champion, economist and expert on policy is taking on this new government role in the wake of &#39;Fuller Working Lives &ndash; A Framework For Action&#39;, a government report released in June, outlining the varied benefits of individuals over the age of 50 remaining in work.

In her new role, Dr Altmann, who is an expert on issues relating to older people, is going to make the argument for mature workers to the business community and challenge ideas that are out of date.

&quot;I am so pleased that the government has shown it recognises the importance of encouraging people to stay in the labour market, rather than giving up before they need to. This will bring benefits all round &ndash; to individuals, to business and to the economy as a whole,&quot; she has said.

She added that a large part of her new role is to co-operate with employers, so they can see the big benefits there are in the recruitment and retention of older workers.

A new PCG competition has been launched to find the best self employed professionals in the country.

This is set to culminate in London awards ceremony this November featuring 15 finalists.

Called 15 for 15, the competition aims to help the best examples of people who start businesses alone, while using them as great examples for people thinking about going self employed, competition spokesperson Louis Clark has explained.

&quot;This competition isn&rsquo;t just open to &lsquo;dragon&rsquo;s den&rsquo; style entrepreneurs, we want everyone from web designers and architects through to carpenters and artisan bakers to get involved and tell us why they&rsquo;re Britain&rsquo;s best one-person business,&quot; he explained.

He has said that, as well as a prize of &pound;5,000 for whoever wins, every finalist will get thousands of pounds worth of support and tech.

http://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801732712Wed, 02 Jul 2014 12:51:18 GMThttp://www.jmkgroupuk.com/uk-news.aspx?id=801732712Help to Buy has helped more than 35,000, stats show

Kris Hopkins has welcomed Help to Buy&#39;s role in bringing about positive outcomes such as boosting construction jobs.
It came as he announced that more than 35,000 people had bought homes via one of the Help to Buy programmes.

Since its launch, 22,831 have purchased property via Help to Buy: equity loan. Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee has seen 7,313 sales, with Help to Buy: NewBuy seeing 5,173.

Some 75 per cent of all Help to Buy sales are newly built homes.

&quot;With house building up a third over the past year, [Help to Buy is] clearly [...] getting workers back on construction sites and building the homes communities want and need,&quot; Mr Hopkins, the housing minister, said, touching on the topic of construction workers.

According to recent estimates, Help to Buy is only responsible for three per cent of all house sales.

Michael Gove has just approved 38 more free schools - meaning there are now 331 such schools either already open or approved.

These schools are established by parents, people in teaching jobs or charities, off the back of local demand.

The newly announced schools will provide 22,000 places for pupils - and the vast majority are opening September 2015.

Overall, this type of school is said to have created some 175,000 new places.

The schools are disproportionately placed in deprived areas, and locations where there are not enough school places.

Some 84 per cent of the newly approved schools are in places that have the biggest need for additional school places. Half are in communities which are among the 30 per cent that are most deprived in England.

&quot;Free schools are giving thousands of children from ordinary backgrounds the kind of education previously reserved for the rich and the lucky,&quot; claimed Mr Gove, education secretary.

&quot;Thanks to our free school programme, many more parents now have a new school in their neighbourhood offering high standards and tough discipline,&quot; he added.

Mr Gove also said such schools place those in teaching jobs, rather than politicians or bureaucrats, in power, because these people &quot;know their pupils best&quot;.

It&#39;s crucial that children at school know about running businesses, so they are prepared to become &quot;the young self-employed professionals of tomorrow,&quot; PCG&#39;s Chris Bryce has said.

The chief executive officer of the organisation, which represents independent professionals, was reacting to Lord Young of Graffham&#39;s recent report, &#39;Enterprise for All&#39;.

This report suggests teaching children business skills from age five.

Mr Boyce believes such skills have a particular importance these days, because the number of young people opting to go into self-employment right after they leave education is steadily going up.

&quot;There has been a rise of 24% in people under thirty choosing self-employment over traditional &lsquo;jobs&rsquo;. These are enthusiastic, enterprising individuals with great ideas and the motivation to turn them into successful businesses,&quot; he said.

He also said that the number of young people deciding to be self-employed is going up a lot in all parts of the economy, and urged for these people to be given the practical business skills needed to convert their ambition and drive into successful small businesses.

A variety of government action has been described in a newly published plan themed around workers later in life.

The report was published earlier this month and discusses actions such as this month&#39;s extension of the right to ask for flexible working.

It also discusses a Health and Work Service being launched to provide help to people who have long-term health problems, so they can work.

Among other things, the publication discusses creating the post of Older Workers Employment Champion to promote the benefits of taking-on older workers.

The report, &#39;Fuller Working Lives &ndash; a framework for action&#39; came out of June 13th.

It shows there could have been an economic boost worth &pound;18 billion last year, if there was a halving of the employment gap present between the 40 to 50 and 50 to State Pension age demographics.

Office for National Statistics data suggests that the next ten years will see a fall in the number of 16 to 49 year olds in the UK (down by 700,000) and a rise in people aged from 50 to State Pension age (up by 3.7 million).

&quot;Older workers have a huge amount to bring to any workforce and are a vast untapped talent. We are living longer and can expect many more years of healthy life. It&rsquo;s great news &ndash; but it&rsquo;s something that as a society and as an economy we need to respond to,&quot; commented Steve Webb, minister for pensions.

He said he is &quot;determined that we boost our support for older workers&quot; and give support to employers in challenging ideas that are out of date, so they see older workers&#39; strengths.

The period since April of 2010, has seen close to 200,000 affordable homes delivered, according to recent official data.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, 41,654 affordable homes were started - that&#39;s 15 per cent more than had been started the year before.

Construction workers have also been busy working on Affordable Homes programme homes - 125,000 of which have so far been delivered out of an overall 170,000 planned. The government has invested &pound;19.5 billion into this programme.

The&nbsp;government has brought about 445,000 new homes overall (including affordable homes) since the April of 2010.

There&#39;s a confidence to become self employed which is spreading throughout the workforce - something which is good for the economy.

That&#39;s the view of PCG economist Georgios Nikolaidis, reacting to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Market data.

Mr Nikolaidis also said that self-employment represents &quot;the future of work&quot;.

Speaking on behalf of his organisation, an association with a membership of independent professionals, Mr Nikolaidis noted that every year&#39;s labour market stats this side of 2000 have shown more people deciding &quot;to become their own boss&quot;.

&quot;It is particularly exciting to see people from all walks of life realise that starting a business isn&rsquo;t just something other people can do,&quot; he said.

The most recent ONS data demonstrated an eight per cent year-on-year rise in the number of self employed people in the UK and a 1.6 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter, he noted. &nbsp;

That&#39;s against a one per cent rise in employee numbers compared to the previous quarter, with the same measure up 1.8 per cent year-on-year.

&quot;The number of people under 30 choosing to go freelance has risen by 38% while the number of freelance mothers has gone up by 25%. These are both groups not traditionally associated with starting a business and it is encouraging to see this perception finally changing,&quot; said the economist.

ONS figures, which cover February to March this year, show an overall rise in employment of 780,000 year-on-year, which is the largest annual spike recorded for some 25 years.

UK employment numbers have gone up 780,000 year-on-year, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. This is the largest yearly hike in employment for 25 years.

Figures covering February to April this year showed employment up by 345,000 on the previous three month period.

The numbers show 30.5 million in work, with the employment rate at 72.9 per cent, which is only 0.1 percentage points under the peak it reached before the recession.

There were close to 5,500 extra people in work each working day in February to April, compared to the prior three months.

&quot;As we build a stronger economy, businesses up and down the country are feeling increasingly confident about creating jobs, meaning many thousands more people are in work every day &ndash; ensuring a better future for them, their families, and for the country as a whole,&quot; commented Esther McVey, employment minister.

ONS data shows a rise in the number of self employed year-on-year. There are now 4.54 million, up 337,000. The rise for employees was 457,000, up to 25.75 million.

A list of 25 employers who did not stick to National Minimum Wage rules has been released by the government, which says it has &quot;named and shamed&quot; them.

The group owes workers in excess of &pound;43,000 in arrears between them, as well as having to pay more than &pound;21,000 in financial penalties.

The employers had not paid workers the right minimum wage, and their names have been released as part of a new system brought in last year making it simpler to name employers in such circumstances.

Each of the employers named had been investigated by HM Revenue &amp; customs (HMRC) following complaints from their workers.

&quot;Paying less than the minimum wage is not only wrong, it&rsquo;s illegal. If employers break the law they need to know that they will face tough consequences,&quot; commented Jenny Willott, business minister.

The economy is in the UK going the right way for the smallest businesses in the country, according to a new economic analysis from PCG.

The organisation, which represents people like contractors and other independent professionals, brought out its Economic Analysis for May earlier this month.

&quot;The rise in self-employment continues to place individuals with their own business at the centre stage of the economic debate with analysts feuding over the implications of this trend,&quot; commented Georgios Nikolaidis, report author and PCG economist.

His report cites recent Office for National Statistics stats showing that self employment went up nine per cent year-on-year, up to 4.55 million.

Rates are going up because of less availability of people with the skills needed, he added. Evidence for such rate rises cited in the new report comes from REC/KPMG data.

It appears that the picture for self-employed professionals in the UK is an encouraging one, he suggested, although there is the possibility that political uncertainty could destabilise economic recovery, he warned.

Recently, PCG reacted to the Queen&#39;s Speech saying that the heavy focus on flexible working and small businesses indicates how important the sector is to making the economy better.

The prime minister has commented on how Help to Buy is supporting a rise in new home construction numbers.

&quot;Help to Buy has helped thousands of hardworking people to buy a new home and crucially it is helping to increase the number of new homes being built around the country,&quot; David Cameron said.

It came as figures released at the end of May showed 27,861 households had been supported by the initiative.

The government says the scheme is supporting a rising housing supply and bringing up demand for newly built homes.

Some three quarters of homes purchased using the initiative are newly built, and there has been a 34 per cent hike in private house construction since it launched.

The government says leading builders have put newly invigorated house construction activity down to Help to Buy.

Executive chair of the Home Builders Federation, Stewart Baseley, has said that: &quot;The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme is supporting demand for new build homes - and if buyers can buy, builders can build.&quot;

This scheme&#39;s extension gives certainty about demand over the longer term, helping the sector to plan, rebuild the capacity which was lost during the economic downturn and bring about sustainable rises in supply, he said.

This is bringing about the provision of much needed homes, as well as creating tens of thousands of jobs on construction sites as well as within the construction supply chain, he added. &nbsp;

Kris Hopkins, housing minister, has given word of eight more housing associations set to receive funding via the Affordable Housing Guarantees Scheme, adding to the eight already approved.

Together, this group has been forecast to borrow funding worth up to &nbsp;&pound;630 million to begin work on more than 5,900 affordable homes by 2017.

The Affordable Housing Guarantees Scheme sees the government guaranteeing and unlocking more affordable debt for Affordable Housing Finance, which delivers the scheme.

This way the organisation can lend up to &pound;3.5 billion to housing associations so that construction workers can create new homes.

On May 30th, Affordable Housing Finance issued the initial bond for fundraising for schemes - at a value of &pound;208 million - at a lower price (3.76 per cent) than has yet been seen in affordable housing.

Now, 13 of the associations involved in the Affordable Housing Guarantees Scheme are able to access this money.

These 13 going to create some 4,800 affordable homes thanks to this funding, as well as &pound;250 million from government-guaranteed European Investment Bank funding.

Some 94.2 per cent of England&#39;s young people aged 16 and 17 are in training or education - a biggest comparable rate than has been recorded since 2001, when consistent records started, according to government stats.

The same figures - covering Q1 2014 - show that, among 19 to 24 year olds, there was a 20,000 strong fall year-on-year in numbers unemployed for over six months. The number out of work for under six months saw a 32,000-strong fall, meanwhile.

Figures showed 13.1 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training (NEET), a two percentage point fall year-on-year.

For those aged 16 to 18 the equivalent figure was 6.7 per cent, down 1.5 percentage points. The rate for 19 to 24 year olds fell 2.3 percentage points, meanwhile.

&quot;I am delighted to see that the number of young people not in education, employment or training is at its lowest level since 2005,&quot; commented Matthew Hancock, the skills and enterprise minister.

&quot;The figures released today show the progress being made to ensure that all young people are equipped with the skills that allow them to begin productive and prosperous careers.&quot;

He said he is especially pleased that the percentage of people aged 16 to 18 with NEET status is lower than has been seen since records started. (Comparable data started being recorded in 2001.)

Some 76 per cent of schools in the UK have expressed concern about boys not achieving their potential when it comes to reading, according to past research from the National Literacy Trust.

The Trust has now developed a World Cup toolkit. The aim is that this will get youngsters, and boys in particular, to develop a love of reading. It comes ahead of the World Cup beginning in Brazil this June.

Frank Lampard, the England player, is supporting the kit, and has said: &ldquo;I think the National Literacy Trust&rsquo;s World Cup toolkit is a fantastic idea and a great resource for getting kids enthusiastic about reading and writing at a time when the world&rsquo;s focus will be on football.&quot;

The resource has been co-developed by Tom Palmer, a children&#39;s author with many sporty children&#39;s titles to his name, including new novel Over The Line.

Mr Palmer has penned the Love Football: Love Reading kit. The set includes activity ideas, posters and more for the likes of libraries, schools and other institutions to make use of.

The Trust is also publishing a 26-part story in installments over the World Cup, which people like those in teaching jobs will be able to read aloud in classrooms.

As those in primary teaching jobs will know, last week was home to Sats tests for England&#39;s 11-year olds.

Government figures show that 550,000 children at this age undertook the tests.

And the government has also announced that there&#39;s been a sharp rise in pupils taking Level 6 papers, which allow them to officially reach a level of attainment two steps above the Level 4 11 year olds are expected to reach.

With 47,000 11-year-olds taking reading Level 6 papers in 2012, this has gone up to 95,000 this year. And with 55,000 taking the maths Level 6 test in 2012, this year that was 106,000.

Last year, some 59,000 took spelling, grammar and punctuation at Level 6, and this has now gone up to 90,000.

&quot;We want to see every school stretching all their pupils and these figures show that primary schools have embraced the opportunity to stretch their brightest 11-year-olds,&quot; commented a spokesperson for the Department for Education.

In other education news, recently, the government gave word that there was &pound;4 million worth of prize money on offer in the Pupil Premium Awards 2015.

Nick Clegg and David Laws, the schools minister, have announced next year&#39;s Pupil Premium Awards for schools in England.

Schools can win shares of a &pound;4 million prize fund in the awards, by showing the best improvement from their disadvantaged pupils.

The winning secondary school gets &pound;250,000. The winning special school and primary school both get &pound;100,000.

There are also regional prizes, runner up prizes and qualifier awards, as well as eight prizes for schools meeting certain criteria related to achievements from pupils eligible for free school meals.

Cash prizes can be used to give certain pupils extra support or organise school trips for disadvantaged youngsters.

The aim of the awards is to encourage educational establishments to discover good and innovative methods for making use of pupil premium funding.

This government funding is provided to schools based on the number of disadvantaged pupils taught.

&quot;I&rsquo;m pleased to announce the rewards up for grabs in next year&rsquo;s Pupil Premium Awards are even greater for both schools and the children whose lives they help transform,&quot; commented Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister.

Kris Hopkins, the housing minister, has claimed recent stats show Help to Buy is supporting the construction sector.

More than 27,000 households have purchased homes through a Help to Buy scheme, he recently revealed.

Help to Buy: equity loan&nbsp;and&nbsp;NewBuy&nbsp;are responsible for 24,500 of these purchases, and Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee for 2,500.

Meanwhile, recent stats show that new home starts last year reached a high not seen for six years - news that construction workers are likely to greet with some degree of positivity.

There&#39;s been a 29 per cent rise in starts for new homes built for private sale year-on-year since&nbsp;Help to Buy: equity loan launched.

&quot;Thousands of people have now achieved their dream of becoming homeowners through Help to Buy. Hard working families are getting the homes they want, while house building is at its highest level since 2007 and climbing,&quot; commented Mr Hopkins. &quot;It&rsquo;s clear evidence our long-term economic plan is working.&quot;

However, he added, more work is needed and the government is going to carry on prioritising resources for the improvement of the housing market.

Michael Gove has just announced a review into initial teacher training (ITT) courses used by people beginning their journey into teaching jobs.

The independent review is set to look at the effectiveness and quality of such training courses.

Among other things, it will attempt to define effective practice for these courses, work out whether the system as it stands delivers this and recommend improvements.

&quot;While we have already taken steps to improve teacher training, including through the popular School Direct route, it is right that we look at how we can ensure all courses are providing the best possible training,&quot; claimed education secretary Mr Gove.

The secretary is due to hear back from the review by the close of 2014.

Andrew Carter OBE is chairing the review and its panel is going to be appointed shortly.

Construction workers&#39; careers are set to be supported by the government&#39;s Builders Finance Fund.

Kris Hopkins has given word that the Fund, worth &pound;525 million, is set to support the construction of up to 15,000 homes, through investment in smaller-scale housing schemes.

The plan is that this will speed up building on smaller-scale sites as well as supporting some 15,000 construction jobs and keeping many businesses in Britain going.

The Fund forms an aspect of the long-term plan the government has for the economy.

Hopkins, the housing minister, spoke about the Fund at a Home Builders Federation event this week.

He has explained that it will help sites that are ready for work and span 15 to 250 properties.

Any developer can apply for some of the cash, though smaller companies are due to benefit because they tend to undertake construction on such sites.

&quot;This funding will get workers back on site, support 15,000 jobs across the construction industry, and build thousands of new homes for communities up and down the country,&quot; commented Mr Hopkins.

The Department for Education (DfE) has said that a new deal, meaning schools will be able to purchase defibrillators at a lower cost, is set to be struck soon.

The government is looking for a source to supply the devices for all schools for a competitive cost - they ordinarily cost some &pound;1,000.

Defibrillators can save lives by providing an electric shock to the heart in the event of cardiac arrest.

Although it is, of course, highly unusual for people in teaching jobs or others working or learning in schools to see cardiac arrest occur on-site, the government notes sudden cardiac arrest does occur even in people who may not know they have a cardiac condition.

&quot;By securing defibrillators at a reduced price, schools will find it much easier to install these potentially life-saving devices. We hope schools right across the country will take advantage of this,&quot; said Lord Nash, schools minister.

Dame Dana Ross-Wawrzynski is set to chair an upcoming review aiming to create a new set of standards for headteachers, the government has announced.

Dame Dana is the executive head of Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, as well as being Bright Futures Educational Trust&#39;s CEO.

The aim is that the standards coming out of the review will be reflective of how the school system is becoming more diverse, the government says.

Current standards are used by a lot of governing bodies when people are recruited into head teaching jobs or such people&#39;s performance is assessed. The last time they were reviewed was back in 2004.

&quot;We know there is a strong link between school leadership, quality of teaching, and outcomes for pupils,&quot; said David Laws, schools minister and Liberal Democrat MP.

&quot;It is a decade since the headteacher standards were last reviewed, and it is right we establish new standards which consider the many different types of school leaders there now are.&quot;

Recent stats show that 96 per cent of teachers in England are educated to degree level or higher - which is 43,000 more than was the case for those in teaching jobs in 2010.

The Department for Education&#39;s numbers, which have just been released and cover November last year, also showed 451,100 full time equivalent teacher working in England.

That&#39;s 9,100 more than were working the year before and a record for teacher numbers.

&quot;There has never been a better time to be a teacher and today&rsquo;s figures show there have never been more people teaching in England&rsquo;s classrooms,&quot; said a spokesperson for the Department.

It&#39;s previously been shown that 74 per cent of people training to be teachers at the moment have a 2.1 degree or better - compared the 61 per cent of people who were training in 2010.&nbsp;

Those in teaching jobs are unlikely to have missed the news of arts subject GCSE and A Level changes that came to light this week.

Michael Gove has given word that music, drama, dance and art and design GCSEs will be reformed in time for the academic year beginning September 2016.

Several other subjects, including PE and computer science, will also be changed in time for the same start date.

Reformed GCSEs for history, languages, geography and sciences have already been announced as starting in the 2016/17 academic year. New maths and English courses will begin September next year.

Following the announcement of new A levels for a range of subjects beginning September next year, today saw word given of reforms to drama, music, PE, RE, design and technology and dance. These are set to come into action September 2016, the same time that students will begin reformed maths, further maths, geography and languages courses.

&quot;I am passionate about great art, drama, dance, music and design, and I am determined to ensure every child enjoys access to the best in our culture. I also want all schools to be able to nurture creative talent in every child,&quot; commented Mr Gove, education secretary.

&quot;That is why I am delighted that new high-quality qualifications in creative and cultural subjects will be made available to all students. They will now have the chance to take these new qualifications from September 2016.&quot;

He said it was brilliant news for English schools&#39; cultural education.

An extra &pound;300 million worth of borrowing is being made accessible to councils via a hike in the housing revenue account borrowing limit they face. This is set to be invested in affordable new homes beginning in 2015, ministers have announced.&nbsp;

Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, and Eric Pickles, communities secretary, have announced that the fresh borrowing powers will give councils a chance to construct up to 10,000 homes of this sort.
Councils will need to show they&#39;ll get the best possible value for money when they apply for additional borrowing powers, the government has said. &nbsp;

Ministers also gave word that rules around the selling of council land are going to change, meaning more land which isn&#39;t being used now can go towards home creation.

&quot;We have untied the hands of councils so they can take more responsibility for housing in their area. Councils have built more homes in the last 3 years than under the whole of the last government - 170,000 affordable homes have been delivered since 2010, and housebuilding is now at its highest level since 2007,&quot; said Mr Pickles.

With extra action still needed, he said, the government was giving councils the option of more borrowing powers for home creation and increasing the ease with which they could sell off redundant and surplus property to create affordable homes.

Councils should put consideration towards what land they can release to help locals, he added.

A new report from Ofsted highlights that only one in three five year olds who had low-income backgrounds had got up to a good developmental level last year, and makes a range of early years suggestions.

Pre-schoolers from disadvantaged backgrounds require support from trained people in teaching jobs so they can keep up with peers at school, it is argued in an Early Years Annual Report from the body.

Pre-school settings that aim to help kids learn from the beginning are the best placed to help stamp-out disadvantage, it argues.

The report also highlights rising standards, with 78 per cent of Early Years Register members now deemed outstanding or good.

But launching the publication, Sir Michael Wilshaw, HM Chief Inspector, said: &quot;Too many of our poorest children are getting an unsure start because the early years system is letting them down.

&quot;What children facing serious disadvantage need is high-quality, early education from the age of two delivered by skilled practitioners.&quot;

This should be teacher-led and take place somewhere that parents recognise and have access to - schools fit the bill in this reguard, he suggested.

However, national director for early education at Ofsted Nick Hudson explained that the report wanted to break barriers separating schools catering for pre-school kids and other pre-school providers.

Ofsted is clear that the best provision, regardless of location and provider, focuses on helping kids learn, he explained.

Kris Hopkins, the housing minister, has announced a deal for the creation of new homes for the private rental market.

Some 190 homes are set to be built in a deal that will see the Mill Group get &pound;8.7 million to partner with Bovis Homes in delivering new properties.

Horsham, Bristol, Brockworth, Hampshire, Cambridge and Hemel Hempstead are all benefitting from the deal, which will see construction workers create 80 new apartments and 110 new houses.

This is the third deal to come about via the Build to Rent scheme, a government initiative worth &pound;1 billion.

The aim of this scheme - which it&#39;s currently set to meet - is to have started work on some 10,000 private rental properties by next year.

&quot;Millions of people use the flexible option of renting in the private sector. I want to ensure tenants have a choice of high-quality homes, rented under reasonable terms,&quot; commented Mr Hopkins.

&quot;So I&rsquo;m pleased that this deal is complete to build 190 homes across six sites specifically for private rent.&quot;

Last academic year saw persistently absent pupil numbers down by nearly a third against 2009/10 in English state schools. This is a fact the government is claiming its reforms can be thanked for.

Persistently absent pupil numbers fell from 433,130 to 300,895 over the period in question, new government stats show. &nbsp;

Meanwhile, there was a drop of 130,000 in the number of pupils not attending 15 per cent of school. And the number of school days lost because of overall absence saw a 7.7 million-strong fall - taking it to 49.3 million in 2012/13.

Overall absence fell to 5.2 per cent of the year&#39;s sessions, from six per cent in 2009/10.

&quot;There is no excuse for skipping school. We have taken action to reduce absence by increasing fines and encouraging schools to address the problem earlier,&quot; said Michael Gove, education secretary.

&quot;Today&rsquo;s figures show we are making progress, with 130,000 fewer pupils regularly missing school under this government.&quot;

Significant absence from a pupil can impact both those in teaching jobs and the young person&nbsp;themselves, of course.

The government has just released proposals that, it claims, will support a boost to home construction, improve housing supply and bring down costs associated with home improvement and home building.

It says some councils have used Section 106 charges that made it unviable for people to self-build or for developers to build just a few properties.

Section 106 charges can also apply to annex and extension building and use an affordable-housing levy, the government says.

Proposed Section 106 alterations will mean those people constructing home annexes or extensions won&#39;t need to pay this levy.

Affordable housing levies will also be scrapped for developers working on schemes of up to 10 homes as well as those that want to re-use disused buildings.

The change is included in a just-launched consultation.

&quot;There are too many levies and charges on housing. By cutting these, we can help support hard working families, give builders a boost and build more homes,&quot; commented Eric Pickles, communities secretary.

Ofsted recently made proposals that would see its inspection reports carry distinct graded judgements for post-16 and pre-school and reception provision.

It has asked parties such as schools and parents to give their thoughts on the possible change. People in teaching jobs may wish to contribute to the consultation.

The moves would become policy this September, and the idea is that they would make sure inspectors emphasise these parts of schools as much as the others.

Ofsted is also set to consult on school inspection changes more generally before long.

&quot;We are keen to hear the views of parents and learners as well as providers about our proposals to bring in these separate judgements,&quot; said Michael Cladingbowl, national director for schools at Ofsted.

&quot;We are also giving a lot of thought to how school inspection might develop over the longer term and will bring forward proposals for consultation in due course.&quot;

Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, has claimed the recent Budget proves home building is at the centre of the government&#39;s long-term plan for the economy.

&quot;This multi-billion package will boost house building, particularly on brownfield land, create new jobs and allow up to an additional 120,000 aspiring homeowners to buy a home,&quot; he has said.

The developments will put workers back onto sites all over the nation, he said, and support smaller builders to begin work on paused developments again, while ensuring those that wish to build a home themselves are able to.

The Budget announced that Help to Buy: equity loan - which supports up to three tenths of England&#39;s new home building - would be extended until the year 2020.

Funding worth &pound;200 million is also being made available, supporting the construction of thousands of homes on brownfield land in Kent.

Meanwhile, among other construction moves, a Builders Finance Fund is set to support smaller developers to create housing schemes on smaller sites.

New Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has shown a hike of 43,000 in numbers of young people who are in work.

This represents the change&nbsp;between August to October last year and November last year to January this year.

The number of people in employment overall was 30.19 million in the latter period, more than have been in jobs for five years. This side of 2010, there has been a 1.35 million hike in numbers working.

And the latest data shows a 72.3 per cent employment rate, the highest seen this side of 2008.

A rise of 105,000 in number employed from August-October to November-January is down to a rise in self employed people, the ONS says.

&quot;We now have the highest employment rate for 5 years, which shows that the growing economy is helping record numbers of people to find a job, turn their lives around and have the security of a regular wage,&quot; commented Esther McVey, the employment minister, of the recent numbers. &nbsp;

She claimed the employment rise was driven by entrepreneurs and businesses getting more and more confident as the economy gets better.

Job vacancy numbers went up by 23,000 between September to November and December to February, hitting 588,000 in the latter period.

There are plans from the government to give people in teaching jobs training so that they can pass on cyber security advice to their pupils.

It&#39;s one of the points included in a report, Cyber Security Skills: Business Perspectives and Government&rsquo;s Next Steps, published this week.

This puts forward the idea of cyber security learning materials for children aged 11 to 14, and of new qualifications linked to cyber security.

These days, those nations that are able to manage risks linked to cyber security clearly have a competitive advantage, according to David Willetts, the universities and science minister.

&quot;By ensuring cyber security is integral to education at all ages, we will help equip the UK with the professional and technical skills we need for long-term economic growth,&quot; the minister has also commented.

The new publication came out of the government talking with businesses that employ cyber security professionals and asking them how their changing needs can be met.